Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli was born and raised in Lenox. For 22 years, he has served his home district in the House — the largest legislative district in the state — with a focus on regional equity and the goal of being a consistent voice for the Berkshires on Beacon Hill.
Pignatelli came into the Legislature having worked as an electrician and having served on the Lenox Planning Board, Board of Selectmen and as Berkshire County Commissioner. During his final months in office, Pignatelli has been wearing two hats, finishing up his work as a state representative while also serving as interim Lenox town manager.
In an exit interview, Pignatelli talked to SHNS about his experience representing rural Western Massachusetts communities in Boston, the importance of relationships and mentorships in office, and how the House has changed since he entered in 2003.
This interview has been condensed for clarity and length.
Q: What do you look back on as being successes during your time in the House? Is there a moment you can look back on when you were especially proud to serve your community or really felt like you made a difference?
A: I'm proud every day of my career here, of representing the people of the Fourth, now Third Berkshire district, the largest district in the Legislature. I built a good reputation and a name to be responsive to our constituents. I've told people all the time that I never intended to come down here to solve the world's problems, but I'm here to try to solve your problem of the day, and that's what I've taken great pride in.
I've been part of some very historic landmark pieces of legislation that have not only been good for Massachusetts but become templates for the country, such as same-sex marriage. I gave my inaugural speech in support of same-sex marriage at 10:15 at night on March 11, 2004. My first term — I was very nervous and scared about that, because it was controversial. Vermont had done civil unions, [but] we were talking full-blown marriage, [and people were] very divided even in my own district in the progressive Berkshires. But I made some phone calls, did a lot of homework, and we did the right thing. As I look back on it, now, it's the law of the land in America, but it started in Massachusetts. Just a few years later, health care for all — we were bailing out hospitals with the free care pool money, billions of dollars every year of people using the emergency rooms in our local hospitals as their primary care physicians. We were paying for that because they didn't have health insurance. So having health care for all, which became the template for Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act, I'm very proud of that as well.
The things I take personal pride in are things that I've done for individuals that you won't even hear about, trying to solve their problems of the day and trying to get towns to visualize their infrastructure and the cost of doing that. In Boston, politicians count the number of cranes that are in the air — that's economic development for them. Out in the rural parts of Massachusetts, it’s horizontal infrastructure. Roads, bridges, sewer, water, those are the things that are going to bankrupt communities if the state doesn't play a larger role in that. So getting towns thinking about that and sharing some services is going to be very prosperous for years to come.
Q: There are a few of your priorities, like West-East Rail, rural housing security, opioid resources, that are still in limbo. Do any stand out to you as being issues you wish you could have made more progress on?
A: All of the above. I think like a dog and a bone: you just have to keep going for it. And every time I hear the former or current governor mentioning West-East Rail, I take a bit of pride in that, because for years, all they talked about was East-West Rail. Much like the Mass. Turnpike — which I drove down this morning in two and a half hours — which started in Berkshire County and made it to Boston, if we started the rail in Western Mass., I promise you it will get to Boston. But if we start in Boston, I'm afraid that we won't get it to the Berkshires. I think we're kind of on an island to ourselves, we're a shrinking population and an aging demographic. We're getting poorer based on our Medicaid and MassHealth recipients. I see it as a tremendous economic corridor if we do rail the right way. When we say "Western Mass," I don't mean just Springfield, I mean "Western Mass." Western Mass is the Berkshires, and I can see and envision an economic corridor from Albany, New York, to the Berkshires, Springfield, Worcester, Boston, west-east and east-west.
On opioids, Narcan is a proven life-saving tool. I wish we got more momentum going here in the Legislature that would require all first responders to carry Narcan. I came to light with it when a young man died of a drug overdose surrounded by his family in the presence of a policeman, waiting for Narcan to arrive. The fact that the police officer was not carrying Narcan that could have revived him and gotten him to the hospital, I think was a missed opportunity. Out in the rural parts of Massachusetts, we still depend on volunteers. There are some communities that I represent that don't even have a police department. We depend on volunteer firemen, volunteer ambulance people. So why wait for Narcan to arrive, if the volunteer EMS person may be the next door neighbor, if they had Narcan on them, they could have saved a life.
Q: There's a narrative that western Mass., the Berkshires specifically, gets short changed sometimes when it comes to policy, funding and support from Beacon Hill — that eastern Mass. receives most of the attention. Have you found that to be true?
A: Yes and no. I think when I first got here, we felt like we were getting the crumbs, but we built a coalition. When I came in, [there was] an amazing A-team of Berkshire delegation members. We tried to build a "413" delegation — that's our area code — trying to level the playing field, because right now there's only three state reps for the Berkshires, and there's what, 20 for Boston? Every day, we're outnumbered coming to work, but by building friendships and relationships and doing things on a collaborative basis and reminding them it's a commonwealth, not just the city of Boston, I think we've made some great strides. I'm a big believer in regional equity, whether it be education in Boston or education in the Berkshires, or a road in Boston or the Berkshires, let's treat them all the same. You have a million cars in downtown Boston; I may only have 20,000 a day in the Berkshires, but that road is critically important to me and my economy.
Q: You've talked to MASSterList before about the amount of experience leaving the Legislature at the end of this session, the need for institutional knowledge and an understanding of processes. It's a reality that veteran lawmakers leave and are replaced by a new wave of less-experienced lawmakers — how is it possible to combat that loss? Why is this issue so important to you?
A: I grew up in a political family. My father was the longest-serving selectman in Lenox history, the longest-serving county commissioner in Berkshire County history. I felt I knew a lot growing up in that family, serving as a county commissioner and a selectman myself — I came down here thinking I knew a lot, but quickly learned that I had a lot more to learn. So having that delegation around me at that point, [there were] a lot of great mentors. I wish we had more mentors in the Legislature. I wish the leadership would appoint people to say, "Okay, we've got a first year class coming in — you work with this leader, you work with this rep," [to] get them to understand how the process works. It's a marathon, not a sprint. It's sometimes very frustrating, but it's very slow and deliberate democracy. You have to understand that, you have to be able to articulate back to the people at home who get equally frustrated. So I wish [there were] more mentor-mentee relationships.
COVID has changed a lot. The remote legislative sessions we had for a couple of years were challenging — I'm still meeting people that were elected during Covid. So it's about relationship building, it's about friendships. I'll always remember now-Senator Rush, he was in my class in the House when we first came in. I remember him standing up on the floor of the House because we were advocating for something. And Mike Rush had never, ever in his life been to the Berkshires, but we built a relationship, and I remember him standing on the floor of the House saying, "You know what, I've never been to the Berkshires, but if this is good for Smitty's district, then I'm going to support it." Some people call it horse trading — Mike supported my initiative, and then, in turn, I could support his, even though I've never been to West Roxbury. It's about building coalitions and getting them to understand our districts are very unique, but really not that different. My inaugural speech theme about same-sex marriage was, we are all different, yet we are the same. And I think the same holds true for every member of the Legislature, House or Senate. We all come from different walks of life, but we're all representing the same types of needs. Let's agree to disagree on some things, and let's disagree without being disagreeable. And I think this Legislature has done a very good job with that.
I'll never forget, and I'm probably going to say this in my farewell speech, that Brad Jones — I owe him a lot as a member of the minority party, because he did something for me in my first term that changed the course of my time in the Legislature in a very positive way. I think that bipartisan approach is important. My dad always told me, "Listen to as many people as possible. Someone may have an idea that you've never thought of." And if we had more of a view of that in politics, I think we may be in better shape instead of this partisan split that we don't witness here, but we're clearly seeing in Washington.
Q: We may not see that partisan split here, but there are still tensions between the House and the Senate due to the state's Democratic supermajority. Experiencing that over the years, how do you feel those tensions impact lawmaking?
A: To be honest with you, there are always going to be different points of view, different opinions amongst people. I sometimes wish we could all just leave our egos at the door and try to get things solved for the greater good. My view of politics today in general is it's becoming more self-service than it is public service. And I think we have to change that narrative. We're all here for the greater good. Let's just figure it out. Find a path to "yes," which means both of us have to give up a little bit. That's politics, that's compromise. There's no perfect piece of legislation, we have to give something to get something. But then we learn and we build trust with each other, and we can move on to the next problem that we're all dealing with.
Going back quickly to institutional knowledge, I think that's paramount. MASSterList and State House News [may say] "Oh, only 14 legislators are leaving this year," but that’s about 233 years of institutional knowledge. You cannot replace that with 14 brand-new state reps, I'm sorry. In order to know where you're going, you have to understand where you've been. And that's where that loss of institutional knowledge I think is going to be a struggle for some people.
Q: You've served under four House speakers — Finneran, DeMasi, DeLeo and now Mariano — and witnessed four different leadership styles. What has that experience been like starting from when you were a fresh rep to now, as a veteran? What has it taught you about effective legislative operations over time?
A: Everybody has a different style and different personality. The four speakers I've served under — very different styles, but very effective in the same token. So adapting your agenda to kind of align with the Speaker, I think, is very effective, and that's what we've tried to do. I never came down here to aspire to be in leadership. If I got there, it was great — I was chairman of the Environment Committee for four or five years, a great achievement, but it wasn't my goal. Some people, that's all they want to do. And then there are others that come down here looking for their next job opportunity. I didn't do that, either. I just wanted to come out and do the work and represent my district, and have the Berkshires have a voice on Beacon Hill. And I think we've done that very effectively, but each speaker had a very different style. Some more engaging, some more, I hate to use the word dictatorial, but more controlling. Nonetheless, learn and adapt and there again, build those relationships. Educate your colleagues on the importance of a Narcan bill or dental therapy bill, which I've been an advocate for as well, because of our lack of dentists. It takes time. And then two years goes by very quickly, but it's a constant readjustment, regardless of who the speaker is.
Q: Many remember (and hear stories about) how lawmakers used to get up and actually debate on the floor. Now, things are done more behind the scenes. What are your thoughts about that change in process?
A: I think it's disappointing not to have debate, and I've seen that wane in the last several years, maybe subsequently, with each speaker. I learn a lot by sitting in the first division in the second row, hearing my colleagues make some good points. If you don't engage in the conversations or hear the other side of the story, you kind of channel to one one view of the world. I wish we had more debate, I think the Senate does a pretty good job over there with actually expecting people to get up and speak, not so much in the House. I think that's disappointing, but I hope we could kind of get back to that somehow. But that seems to be an evolution of time. COVID, I think, has made it harder to do that, as well. I have to give credit to Speaker Mariano — I'm not sure if the other speakers that I've served under could have been as effective as he was during that COVID time. The business of Massachusetts kept going, [and it] took a lot of organization and orchestration to make that happen. But now it's time to get back to work, get back in-person and get to understand each other, and let's not be afraid to debate issues. It's how we should learn.
Q: Is there a change that you think the Legislature would be wise to make to improve operations or transparency?
A: I think we've done a good job with the transparency. I think free and open discussions on the floor would be helpful. The perception of the people on the outside looking in don't think we do anything. There's a lot of work that goes behind the scenes at the committee level that the public doesn't always see, but we need to let them know when we're in formal sessions that we're having some conversation. Let's not be worried about what time we have to be out of here to beat the traffic, let's just have a debate. I would love to see those kinds of changes, if possible. Listening to other points of view is not intimidating to me, nor should it be to anybody else.
Q: When you began in the House in 2003, what did you expect the job to be like? How has the reality been different or the same?
A: I'm not sure I knew what to expect. I thought I knew about being a local official and a county official, what the needs of my district were going to be. But then the phone starts ringing, and it's a very different view of the world — people calling about "I can't renew my driver's license," "I can't get access to my health card," "There's a pothole in my yard. What can you do?" I built a reputation where, I wish I trademarked the phrase "#CallSmitty," because I've had people who've called me for things that are really local issues. [I’ll say] "you’ve got to call your town officials," [they’ll say] "Well, I don't know who they are, but my neighbors said 'call Smitty, he'll fix it.'" I'm very proud of that reputation in that regard.
As I reflect back now, I think we've done some great things — but it's not me, it's "we." No legislator will be successful in this building without a good team around them. The staff people here, they don't make enough money, as far as I'm concerned, but they do the yeoman's work. My name may be on the door, but they are my representative when I'm not around, and knock on wood, I've been blessed with some amazing people.
Q: Are you leaving with any unfinished business?
A: The work will never be done… I would love to see Narcan get across the table. Dental therapy is not going to get finished this session, we'll have to start all over again next year. I’m working on some local Home Rule petitions that will be helpful to my communities before the session gets done, and trying to position my communities to make sure they capitalize on the housing bond money. The state will not fund ideas or concepts, [it’s] going to fund shovel-ready projects, which means at the local level, [towns] may have to spend a little bit of money up-front to develop a plan, get it ready, come to the state and say, "Hey, we have an affordable housing development…We're fully permitted. We can put it out to bid in 30 days." Okay, great, here's a check. I'm trying to position my communities to be able to access those dollars. I learned this long ago — the problems never change, only the faces. So the face of the third Berkshire district will change on New Year's Day, but the problems will still be there for that person moving forward. I leave with no second thoughts, no regrets, maybe some disappointments, but no regrets at all. It's time to move on and pass the baton.
Q: Where exactly are you headed after Dec. 31?
A: I have a couple irons in the fire, but nothing definitive yet. I want to keep working. I'm 65 years old. People say "you should be retired" — I hate that word, because that makes me feel old. But I want to do something. I'm still energetic, and I have a lot of good ideas to try to make my little community better. I want to stay involved in some shape or form. I'm the longest-serving state rep in southern Berkshire history. I’m proud of that fact, that people supported me all those years. In my last election, I got I think 93 percent of the vote, which is unheard of after so many years to still be that popular in a contested race. But it's time to pass a baton and try to enjoy life a little bit differently.
Q: Is there anything we didn't touch on that you think is important to note?
A: It's been the honor of my life to be here. Even in the off days, I'll go into the chamber, and I'll sit in my seat all by myself, and I'll just look around the room and I'll see some of the famous names on that vaulted ceiling of people that not only helped establish democracy here in Massachusetts, but became the template for America — as you know, our constitution of Massachusetts is older than the U.S. Constitution. We were a leader on so many things historically. But I sit there and I think about my dad, who passed away a few years ago, and I think about my grandfather, who came here from Italy when he was 19 years old. He died when I was 12, but I never, ever recall him speaking a word of English, but he knew everything that was going on. And to have his grandson sitting in this room, being one of only 160 people in the entire state is still the most humbling, honorable thing I could have ever achieved.
